1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric vehicle. Specifically, the invention relates to an electric vehicle that includes a discharger for discharging a capacitor installed in an electric power converter. The “electric vehicle” according to the invention also includes a fuel-cell vehicle and a hybrid vehicle that includes both a drive motor and an engine.
2. Description of Related Art
A drive motor of an electric vehicle generally has a rated output that reaches several tens of kilowatts. Therefore, large current flows through an electric power converter that supplies driving power to the motor. The electric power converter is typically an inverter that converts direct-current power to alternating-current power, and includes a capacitor that smooths current. The capacitor is to suppress pulsation of current supplied, and a large-capacitance capacitor is employed as the capacitor because current flowing through the electric power converter is large in the electric vehicle. Such an electric vehicle desirably includes a device (discharger) that quickly discharges the capacitor in the case where electric power stored in the capacitor is not required. The case where electric power stored in the capacitor is not required is typically the case where the vehicle has had an accident (trouble, collision, or the like). There is an example of the discharger, which converts electric power stored in the capacitor to thermal energy to consume the electric power by, for example, connecting the capacitor to a discharge resistor having a large heat generation amount through energization and having a high thermal resistance in the event of a collision. There is another example of the discharger, which is described in Domestic Re-publication of PCT International Application No. WO2010/131340.